Bilangan 18:2

18:2 “Bring with you your brothers, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, so that they may join ¹  with you and minister to you while ²  you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony.

Bilangan 18:5

18:5 You will be responsible for the care of the sanctuary and the care of the altar, so that there will be ³  no more wrath on the Israelites.

Bilangan 21:7

21:7 Then the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that he would take away ⁴  the snakes from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

Bilangan 25:4

God’s Punishment

25:4 The Lord said to Moses, “Arrest all the leaders ⁵  of the people, and hang them up ⁶  before the Lord in broad daylight, ⁷  so that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel.”

Bilangan 35:12

35:12 And they must stand as your towns of refuge from the avenger in order that the killer may not die until he has stood trial before the community.

Bilangan 36:8

36:8 And every daughter who possesses an inheritance from any of the tribes of the Israelites must become the wife of a man from any family in her father’s tribe, so that every Israelite ⁸  may retain the inheritance of his fathers.

[18:2]  ¹ sn The verb forms a wordplay on the name Levi, and makes an allusion to the naming of the tribe Levi by Leah in the book of Genesis. There Leah hoped that with the birth of Levi her husband would be attached to her. Here, with the selection of the tribe to serve in the sanctuary, there is the wordplay again showing that the Levites will be attached to Aaron and the priests. The verb is יִלָּווּ (yillavu), which forms a nice wordplay with Levi (לֵוִי). The tribe will now be attached to the sanctuary. The verb is the imperfect with a vav (ו) that shows volitive sequence after the imperative, here indicating a purpose clause.

[18:2]  ² tn The clause is a circumstantial clause because the disjunctive vav (ו) is on a nonverb to start the clause.

[18:5]  ³ tn The clause is a purpose clause, and the imperfect tense a final imperfect.

[21:7]  ⁴ tn The verb is the Hiphil jussive with a vav (ו) consecutive from the verb סוּר (sur); after the imperative this form may be subordinated to become a purpose clause.

[25:4]  ⁵ sn The meaning must be the leaders behind the apostasy, for they would now be arrested. They were responsible for the tribes’ conformity to the Law, but here they had not only failed in their duty, but had participated. The leaders were executed; the rest of the guilty died by the plague.

[25:4]  ⁶ sn The leaders who were guilty were commanded by God to be publicly exposed by hanging, probably a reference to impaling, but possibly some other form of harsh punishment. The point was that the swaying of their executed bodies would be a startling warning for any who so blatantly set the Law aside and indulged in apostasy through pagan sexual orgies.

[25:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “in the sun.” This means in broad daylight.

[36:8]  ⁸ tn The subject is “Israelites” and the verb is plural to agree with it, but the idea is collective as the word for “man” indicates: “so that the Israelites may possess – [each] man the inheritance of his fathers.”